After a long hiatus due to not being able to obtain the FAA exemption to fly for hire, we are now legal! David took the FAA exam for Remote Pilot on 8/31/16 and passed! Joel will be taking the exam soon so we will be fully certified! We are currently updating, tweaking and testing our equipment and should be fully operational very soon!

Yesterday we worked on the last day of a feature shooting in Mobile, Alabama called “Bus 657”. It was basically a big 2nd unit stunt day with a bus driving around town and variously being escorted by police cars, chased by FBI types in black SUVs with a big takedown in a large gravel parking lot. It was an amazing day! Far different than we expected. We were running practically non-stop from the time we got there till wrap and we were the only camera shooting the last scene, which is the opening scene of the movie. And it was NIGHT! Something production claimed they had told us, but I never recalled hearing. After some hiccups and ups and downs early in the day, we pulled it off and they were very happy with our work! I have been in this business a long time, and that was one of the hardest days I’ve ever had! We were very rushed ALL day! I had planned on taking some pictures to post, but honestly never had a moment to do so. Pulled my iPhone out at one point to take a picture and before I could, something came up and I had to keep going!

At the end of the day, the Director and DP were very happy with our work!

As you may have noticed, we call our current heavy lift aircraft “Thor”. When we first received it, we started unpacking it and Joel picked up one of the motor booms (see in foreground of picture below) and held it up and said “Thor!” because it looked like Thor’s hammer!